The economic gap between the EU and three candidate countries - Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey - is significant. Living standards, as measured by GDP per capita at PPP, are less than one third of the level prevailing in the former EU-15 u0096 and about half of the average level in the new member...

The volatility of general government tax revenues has increased in Poland in recent years. The correlation between GDP growth and revenue growth appears to be lower in Poland than in many other EU Member States, which suggests that the instability of its revenues has a different. This Country...

This note provides a brief overview of the work carried out under the auspices of DG ECFIN's fellowship initiative. While the economic policy agenda in Europe is currently dominated by lagging activity reflecting public and private balance-sheet problems and still impaired transmission of...

Summarising the findings of DG ECFIN's fellowship programme on the future of EMUDG ECFIN has now published a series of Economic Papers written by distinguished scholars in the context of its Fellowship Initiative on "The future of EMU & Economic growth perspectives for Europe". This policy brief...

Large and differentiated fiscal adjustments underway in EU countries require credible strategies, including a growth-friendly approach to consolidation design. This brief captures in a summary fashion the main underlying principles for fiscal adjustments of high quality. While setting some...

This brief discusses trends , drivers and policies related to European competitiveness in a global perspective. Over the past two decades, European industry was holding its own against both the old world competition from the US and Japan and newer rivals from China or India. But already before...

Since the release of the 12th Five-Year Plan in 2011, a reform of China's household registration system – the so-called hukou reform - is mentioned as a possible tool to promote labour mobility, boost incomes, rebalance the growth model towards consumption and create a stable urban society....

In the five years since the Leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) first met, the G20 has become the premier forum for global economic policy coordination. The question is whether the G20 can maintain and even strengthen its role in the future and how it can achieve this. This Economic Brief...

This Economic Brief recapitulates some main insights on the role of structural reform for adjustment and growth in the EU. Its aim is threefold. First, the Brief discusses recent reform efforts in EU countries. Second, it discusses possible effects from reforms in labour and product markets by...

Leading indicators point towards an economic recovery in the EU, encompassing also the vulnerable euro area Member States. In view of the legacy of the crisis, growth is still set to remain moderate, but a gradual easing of the drag related to deleveraging, financial fragmentation, adjustment of...